As Dow Plunges, Pat Robertson Warns of Coming Economic Meltdown

The United States has only about two years to get its financial house in order until it could face a Greek-style economic meltdown, Christian broadcasting pioneer the Rev. Pat Robertson warns.

Robertson’s remarks came during an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, as part of Newsmax Magazine’s April cover story on the passing of the torch to the next generation of Christian leaders in America.

Robertson, whose latest book is “Right on the Money: Financial Advice for Tough Times,” tells Newsmax that special-interest groups are driving the United States to the brink of a financial crisis.

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“I think we’ve got two years,” Robertson tells Newsmax. “I think the interest groups have set up such a loud clamor for their way. These public service unions, for example: They don’t want to give up anything. And look at Wisconsin. They’ve tried to stop collective bargaining, and lo and behold members of the Democratic majority absented themselves from the state so they wouldn’t vote. It’s that kind of thing.

“Well, if we don’t face it,” Robertson tells Newsmax, “I think within two years, our creditors are going to start demanding payment, the Chinese will start dumping dollars, and our dollar-denominated bonds. I think the Japanese will do the same thing, the Europeans will do the same thing. And it won’t be very long.”

Robertson warned that anti-U.S. speculative fever will hit very unexpectedly.

“It can happen suddenly that people say, ‘Well, we’re not going to buy American securities any longer.’ We won’t have any moment to pay our bills. And we’ll have rampaging inflation. The standard of living can be cut dramatically, like it was in Germany in the ’20s.

“It can happen just so suddenly when that thing heats up,” Robertson warns. “So I think a couple of years. It may be longer, I don’t know . . . but I don’t think it’s going to be as long as people think.”

Also during the interview session, Robertson’s son, Gordon, says the nation’s dire debt problems are one reason the message of the tea parties “needs to be repeated, and repeated again. Because we are facing a debt crisis of unimaginable proportions.”

Gordon, Christian Broadcast Network CEO and co-host of “The 700 Club,” says the United States is facing “the tyranny of the trillion” – a rude awakening over just how difficult it is for even a superpower to finance a deficit that, according to President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget proposal, will hit $20 trillion in 2015.

“When you start talking about $20 trillion, even at today’s interest rates, you’re talking about $800 billion on interest payments alone,” said the CBN CEO, “which is more than we spend on the U.S. military. So in 2020, can we still afford a military? Will the world still buy our bonds, and if so, at what interest rate?”

The younger Robertson says the current debate in Congress over cuts in non-defense discretionary spending, which only amounts to about 12 percent of the federal budget, is “laughable.”

“Right now, we’re just sort of playing around,” he says. “And until we get that serious debate going — and I don’t see Republicans doing it, I don’t see Democrats doing it.”

Not long after the Newsmax interview with the Robertsons, prominent New York University economist Nouriel Roubini predicted there will be $100 billion in municipal-bond defaults within the next five years.

But he said he does not expect the defaults to “infect the financial system” at large.

The United States has only about two years to get its financial house in order until it could face a Greek-style economic meltdown, Christian broadcasting pioneer the Rev. Pat Robertson warns.
Robertson s remarks came during an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, as part...